Central Park West centers around the glamorous and exciting life of the staff of trendy magazine 'Communique', owned by Allen Rush, "the Darth Vader of publishing". Mariel Hemingway is Stephanie Wells, the newly appointed editor-in-chief of 'Communique'. Central to the plot is the rivalry between Stephanie and Allen's stepdaughter Carrie Fairchild, a scheming Generation-X bitch who does her best to seduce Stephanie's writer husband Mark. The series follows several other ambitious New Yorkers, their loves, treachery, hopes and dreams through thick and thin.